The Evolution of Property
Gillian Black
University of Edinburgh
From this… to this?
David Beckham – � more than a footballer?
“His face on a cover can sell copies of a style magazine; his endorsement will sell anything from football boots to hair products; his presence in a place will arouse enormous interest… He is a commercial property…
and his image is carefully managed by a team of people who are committed to making him one of the world’s most valuable individuals.”
“Beckham’s hairstyle changes at key moments in his life and, it seems, at points in the season where interest in his look may be flagging. His hair then becomes a way both of keeping the Beckham brand in the news and of continually refreshing its image so that it never becomes predictable or safe.”
That hair…
On the bench
“The reason large sums are paid for endorsement is because, no matter how irrational it may seem to a lawyer, those in business have reason to believe that the lustre of a famous personality… will enhance the attractiveness of [their] goods or services to their target market”
Commercial Persona Questionnaire
URL: www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=940732535576
Will also be accessible via AHRC site
Closing date: 18 September
Defining property
Rights in Things:
Rights: exclusion and control
Things: durable; separate existence; capable of transfer
Social Elements:
Exchange
Enforcement
Changing property
“The meaning of property is not constant. The actual institution, and the way people see it, and hence the meaning they give to the word, all change over time… The changes are related to changes in the purposes which society expects the institution of property to serve.”
From slaves to kidneys
1806:
2006:
Copyright
CDPA 1988:
1.—(1) Copyright is a property right
US Patents
Property Right
↓
Patent
↓
Market value/ exchange value?
↓
Utility?
↓
Invention
US Patents
“The commodification of inventive ideas had come to seem so natural by the late nineteenth century that the market definition of utility became conventional wisdom within the patent bar”
Armstrong, “From the Fetishism of Commodities to the Regulated Market: The Rise and Decline of Property”, 82 NW U Law Rev 79 1987-1988
Gradual evolution
“property is always the fruit of evolution; but the right to exclude others from land, chattels and even inventions crystallised so long ago that we lose sight of the process and see only the product”
A slow transformation